New rules will offer more protection for Illinois nursing home residents subjected to neglect, infection, unauthorized administration of psychotropic drugs and negative consequences of inadequate staffing.
The new protections, approved by a state legislative committee Dec. 15, are detailed in a Dec. 16 AARP Illinois news release, an organization that has lobbied for such efforts for two years.
The Illinois Joint Committee of Administrative Rules has approved the following:
- Requiring written, voluntary and informed consent from a resident or surrogate decision maker before psychotropic drugs can be administered
- Educating staff on policies related to residents' informed consent policies and procedures
- Providing appropriately strong remedies for informed consent violations
- Requiring the Illinois Department of Public Health to verify and enforce compliance with minimum staffing requirements
- Making information about facility-specific staffing levels and violations available to the public
- Providing appropriately strong remedies for minimum staffing violations